So Sat 14 saw the Club challenge Time attack cars assemble at Donington.

Bob had been there overnigt and by the time new team member Paul and me arrived just after 8 there were only a couple of little jobs to do before a 9.05 warmup seesion.

The track was wet and looked pretty greasy so Bob decided to go out on the wets.:yes:

Luckily for Paul n me the car was aready sat on its wets from arrival off the trailer.

Without the pro classes there was planty of room in the pit garages to set up tools n tyres etc.:thumbup1:

We were sharing a garage with Jason Bird and his Evo who is looked after by Ben and his Europspec team. Jaffa was in the next garage with Jimmer in attendance and another mystery man who just sat on a stool with a laptop???:whistling:

So the scene was set for the day................

 

Pics....

Haha I recognise the laptop squatter!

Both cars look great Pete. Was the weekend as eventful as always?

The warm up went without incident for Bob and afterwards we had a visit from Dan Turner of Advanced Motorsport to fine tune the Traction Control system which he had sorted during the week before with a new control unit. This has been problematic all season but fingers crossed its all fixed and set up now although there are already plans in place to modify /alter/improve the pick up s for next season.

That a techie snippet that I will return to later in the year.

 

James/Jaffa will be along as he said to let you know about his day so I will just carry on with the "Team Bob" report, which in the main was drama free and successful.

 

Main issues to contend with in the pits were a leaking exhaust system(fixed by a new bracket n bolt, and a "mystery" coolant/brake fluid issue.

We finally tied this down to a cracked neck on the overflow bottle which only leaked when the bottle was fullish and on RH bends due to surge. Bobs coolant is nearly all coolant with very little water and has a slippy feel to it so our inital exploration of a brake fluid leak wasnt as silly as they might seem to you people sitting at home reading about it.

On a hot car... with the clock ticking... and a driver looking on it sometmes isnt immediately obvious to see what the problem really is let alone make a decision what do do about it.

And at the same time fuel top ups. Wheel checks and other fluid checks need to be done and ticked off the list.

Concerns over driver safety and the possibilty of trashing a £50K car dont make it any easier to do the right thing in the heat of the moment.

It was during this work that I felt my decision to bring Paul in to the team was truly vindicated.

He is a real asset and has adapted instantly to working with Bob n me. In fact I coulnt have managed without his help and Im hoping he will be at Brands with us for the final round.

 

Late morning practise and the first real point scoring session after lunch saw Bob driving competently but not highly placed in class.

So it was all down to the final session..................

We could tell from the pit wall that Bob was on a mission with this session and nded up third in the RWD class . Another trip to the podium.

We soon got packed up and loaded after a pretty successful day all round.

Ben a Europspec is going to look at the coolant loss/leak before Brands and hopefully nothing serious is amiss.

The car sounds like it has a minor/medium exhaust manifold/turbo flange leak but that will just have to stay like it for the final event.

 

Bob will no doubt pop along on to this tread to fill you in with any extra detail and let you know what its really like out there on the "black stuff"

A really good day yesterday, with a good end result, it was good fun working with Pete and Bob, I'd say it was pretty much drama free with the car just a few niggles, good to see Bob getting faster through out the sessions.

 

Ill be at Brands for definite so can't wait for that one :)

Thought it was Noel, then realised he was showered and shaven and didnt have a daft hat on.. not sure who it is now.. :tt2:

 

Well done Guys, good result...

 

Haha I recognise the laptop squatter!

Both cars look great Pete. Was the weekend as eventful as always?

 

The cars dont look as great as they did at the start of the season. They are both looking "well used" and "battle scarred".

Going past on the track tho they look cool.

It was James's turn for "eventful" And several other cars/teams too!!!

 

Thought it was Noel, then realised he was showered and shaven and didnt have a daft hat on.. not sure who it is now..

 

Yes indeed it IS Noel.. aka Noz. Doing what he does best.:yes:

Noz has been working quietly on "Team Jaffa " for a bit now.

Thought it was Noel, then realised he was showered and shaven and didnt have a daft hat on.. not sure who it is now.. :tt2:

 

Well done Guys, good result...

 

I couldn't comment on his personal hygiene I've only met him once lol.

Yes indeed it IS Noel.. aka Noz. Doing what he does best.:yes:

Noz has been working quietly on "Team Jaffa " for a bit now.

Is he using the laptop to help or checking his forum posts ??.........lol

He does look comfortable there in that chair.....lol

Quick vid of the dramatic bit, write up, pics and other vids tonight

 

[video=youtube_share;BsaZBtZlnVw]

Is he using the laptop to help or checking his forum posts ??.........lol

He does look comfortable there in that chair.....lol

 

When you're responsible for mapping a car running over 700bhp & 650lbft on a stock bottom end it pays to be nice and comfy :laugh:

Tbh james I think you were lucky there, damn annoying yeah, but not too serious by the looks? Those two scoobies coming in could have made things a little more costly/painful so I guess thats the positive thing to take from it. Mostly cosmetic I would assume?

Gutted for you James. Your luck has to change soon. Glad you are okay.

If the conditions were anything like home today, you guys had some crap changable conditions. So really good result there guys. How much more mechanical traction does the car have over stock?

Oh no!

 

Hopefully the tap only made cosmetic damage?

sh*t. Sorry to see James. :(

Oh no!

 

Hopefully the tap only made cosmetic damage?

 

I know its very hard for you guys n gals who werent there to judge what has happened but trust me "tap" is not a word that fits the event.

I know its very hard for you guys n gals who werent there to judge what has happened but trust me "tap" is not a word that fits the event.

 

The fact the tailgate came off is a clue.

I know its very hard for you guys n gals who werent there to judge what has happened but trust me "tap" is not a word that fits the event.

 

Ok, now I'm not using my phone I see the tailgate on the floor. :shock:

Bugger, sorry to see it happen on such a great car :(

Hope you get it fixed, and I bet you're glad it wasn't the front?

The front was the bit that only got the tap, but gutting nonetheless :(

Edited September 15, 201312 yr by olliezx

From Jim's post on FB, it seems bad.

I admire you guys, who take your Zeds out, and have the balls to use them properly. Nothing but respect.

lol at the tap comment, if you look closely, the front also took a good shove from the wall. photos and vids being uploaded now.

 

damage from what i can see

 

FRONT

front light smashed, headlamp panel has moved slightly, bumper still in tact though!

 

REAR

rear qtr caved in, taking the light, bumper, backbox and arch with it. Tailgate came off largely in one piece, just mounts broken. exhaust being hit seems to have cracked my downpipes too :(

Damn that hit hard, can you recall what sort of speed you were going at?

Long story short, it was a mission just to get to Donnington. Having broken my spare engine in the build up to TOTB, sourcing parts and family holidays, Jimmer and I stripped down the replacement engine last Saturday to the short block, and rebuilt most of it with my parts. Sunday was finishing the assembly and getting it in the car, Monday finishing the install and getting it running. Tuesday, fix brakes (replacement cylinder needed on pedal box). Wednesday collect car. Thursday take car to Noel. Friday, Noel maps car and I collect inthe evening on the way to track.

 

Not driven the car in this week, with different brake pedal ratios and engine pushing a conservative 633rwhp, 600ftlb (wheels) on a stock block. We kept the revs to 7200 to try and preserve the bottom end, even though power is climbing.

 

Did I mention I've not driven around Donnington before :eek:

 

First session

Track is extremely greasy and quite frankly terrifying, manage 2 laps before the engine cuts out, and Link ECU is flashing the engine light. I get towed in, hook up the laptop and can see it's lost the CAS signal, check under the hood and the fan has eaten into the CAS loom! Soldering Iron out, we get it fixed in about 10mins but the session is over.

 

 

Jimmer checks everything over, we add missing stickers, wash the car and wait for the next session

 

Second session

Track is dry! We keep my michelins on anyway as my R888's are getting to the end of their life. Session went really well, steadily getting faster, starting to have some fun. Start pushing the brakes but despite our best effort altering the pedal box, there's still way to much rear bias, the harder I brake, the rears lock up. Other than that, no problems to report. Our cooling system mod from the last event is working very well, coolant only hitting 81deg, oil 60deg.

 

Noel checks ecu logs and mocks me for not using full throttle very often! We use the time between sessions to wire widebands into ecu

 

Qualifying session

R888's are on, suspension stiffened up. I go out and immediately there's a problem, the rear is slding all over the place on corner entry, even when I'm not going very quickly. Doesn't seem to be improving so I come in and soften the rear setup. Back out again, feels a bit better, but now I'm on another outlap with some fast lapping cars, I tuck out the way of the flying scoobies, find the corner is rather tighter when offline, hit the grass, and spin, narrowly avoiding the orange subaru on my way back across the track and hit the wall. Cue 30mins at trackside waiting to be recovered

 

 

Finally get back to the pits, and we start inspecting the damage. Quick check with scrutineers if i can run without a boot, then get cracking on moving metalwork off my rear wheel, and taping up edges, reattaching / removing bits as needed. Also need to rewire my fuel pump switch as that got torn off during recovery. Pete and Paul also lend a hand while I pretend to look busy and sweet talk scrutineers

 

Final

 

We go back out looking like more of a pickup than a 300, still it's worth it. I enjoyed the session, but the brake issue and knackered 888's were holding me back. I was faster on the michelin road tires in the morning :( still, the engine didn't miss a beat, just need to do a compression test post event to see if it's changed from before.

 

Big thanks as always to Jimmer (aka Powerzed) and Noel (Turbonoz) as none of this is possible without their support

Edited September 15, 201312 yr by jaffa

[video=youtube_share;JRxSOR8FfBI]

My cousin was racing this weekend at Donington. Chevron GT4.

He got t boned but was repaired and racing today.

For once I did get footage of the event but it was all pointing at the sky as we didn't check the scene lol. Many thanks to Pete and Paul who both did a great job of keeping the car running. Morning was pretty poor for me as the car was pretty slow but once the exhaust was clamped and we understood the leak I pushed it a little harder. Actually qualifying time was a 1.20 so not too bad and a good 8 seconds quicker than my morning session. I reckoned I could find another 2 or 3 seconds but in the final I got hindered on every quick lap and just about managed another 1.20 which squeezed us into third. I was a bit disappointed at first knowing we had a bit more but I can't complain so was satisfied with the podium. As I am relatively low on power I have to rely on late braking and higher corner speeds to maintain momentum so anything causing me to slow I can't make it back up. As I'm having gearbox issues I also only used third and fourth which took a bit of thinking to get the best lines and all the stones on the chicane didn't help when taking it in third haha. In fact I think Darron (VX220) suffered a bit there also which possibly hindered him in the final too :( The car is definitely capable of the top step on the podium whether the driver is also capable isn't so clear :)

 

I'm not sure if people realise how fast these guys are and what it takes to be competitive. Umar and Ronnie regularly set times faster than the 4x4 pros. They have great cars and are very experienced at knocking out a super fast lap when the rest of us are scratching our heads. I'm not sure Brands will suit my car as it's currently set up and I'm in 'low fund mode' but if we can get it sorted properly I will push it to the max.

 

Bit of bad luck for James but testing at the event is always going to be risky as I found at Cadwell :) here's hoping we can both finish with a flourish at Brands :)